You can play Alan Wake 2 on the Steam Deck (but you shouldn’t)

Despite being an Epic Game Store exclusive, people have figured out how to play Alan Wake 2 on Valve’s handheld. Though it is possible, poor performance means it’s not necessarily a good idea.

To get Remedy’s latest game running on the Steam Deck, you’ll need to jump through a few hoops. Your first obstacle is the fact that the game is exclusive to the Epic Game Store launcher. To get around this, switch to Desktop mode then download the Epic Games Store launcher. You can then launch it from Steam by adding it to your library as a non-Steam game.

Alternatively, you can use the Heroic Launcher which is an app that combines your libraries from a few launchers including EGS and GOG. Either way, once you’ve got your EGS library accessible on your Steam Deck, all that’s left is to download Alan Wake 2 and play. You may need to download Proton tools to force compatibility.

Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should. Those who have gotten the game to run on the Deck don’t report good performance. With settings at low, YouTuber Deck Wizard manages to have the game running at around 24FPS in the woods. Steam Deck Review and Tips‘ FPS sits in the low 20s as well.

It’s no surprise that the Deck struggles to run the game, as it extremely demanding even on regular PCs. When the recommended PC specs were revealed, it shocked many, as DLSS is heavily relied upon. It is arguably worth it, as Alan Wake 2 is one of the best-looking games of the current generation.

Alan Wake 2 isn’t the only game released this year that the Deck struggles to run. It also had a hard time with Starfield and Baldur’s Gate 3.